THURSDAY 14 NOVEMBER METROPOLIS BALLROOM, SOUTHBANK MELBOURNE
Proceedings 6.00pm UNSW Sydney Welcome Reception 7.00pm Official Welcome Keynote Address - The Hon. Greg Hunt, Minister for Health 7.30pm EntrĂŠe Award Presentations 8.30pm Main Course Award Presentations 9.30pm Dessert & Coffee Award Presentations Final Remarks 10.15pm Networking & Celebration
Dinner Menu EntrĂŠe Handmade tomato, buffalo ricotta & basil ravioli, tomato emulsion, black olive crumb, shaved pecorino, purple basil leaf (v) Main Black Angus eye fillet, thyme & parmesan potato gratin, smoked mustard butter, charred broccolini, braised shallot, baby purple kale & red wine jus (gf) or Pan seared Northern Territory barramundi fillet, butter poached tiger prawn, fennel, leek, tomato, lime beurre blanc, sweet potato ribbons (gf)
2
Roving Desserts, Coffee & Tea Hazelnut praline tart, milk chocolate ganache, caramel, hazelnut crumble Espresso brulee, salted coffee crumble, hazelnut caramel (gf) Basil cashew cheesecake, mango curd, activated buckwheat, toasted coconut (gf, df, vg)
A very warm welcome to the 17th Health and Medical Research Awards. On behalf of the Research Australia Board, thank you for your invaluable support of our signature event. As the health and medical research sector’s peak body, we focus our energies on ensuring that health and medical research remains a high national priority and an important part of this is ensuring proper acknowledgement is given to those sharing that mission. So the most heartfelt thank you to all the people nominated this year – nominees and nominators alike – your work is incredible. Health and medical research has made a significant contribution to improve health outcomes around the world and it holds the promise of even greater advances in the future. Tonight is about celebrating our world leading expertise in this space and acknowledging individuals and organisations that make significant investments in health and medical research. We are proud of these Awards recognising and celebrating leadership, advocacy, philanthropy, innovation and frontiers research - all with a common objective to materially improve health outcomes for the Australian community. It is also vital that the next generation of researchers is acknowledged and encouraged, and the Discovery Award is a wonderful way to honour the leaders of the future. Our Awards would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors so thank you to each and every sponsor of the 2019 Awards. Please join us in the excitement of the evening, celebrating this year’s Award Winners and Highly Commended finalists, networking with your peers and hearing from sector leaders and supporters. Nadia Levin CEO
CONTENTS Peter Wills Medal ��������������������������� 4 Great Australian Philanthropy Award GSK Award for Research Excellence Griffith University Discovery Award ���������������������������� 6 Health Services Research Award ����������������������������10 Sponsored by The Victorian Government
Data Innovation Award ���������������14 Sponsored by Bupa Health Foundation
Advocacy Award ����������������������������18 Frontiers Research Award ���������� 20 Sponsor Acknowledgment ������������������������ 26
Chris Chapman Chairman 3
THE PETER WILLS MEDAL
The Peter Wills Medal was created in honour of a great leader whose work led to the inception of Research Australia. The Peter Wills Medal is the flagship award and recognises someone who has made an outstanding, long-term contribution to building Australia’s international reputation in areas of health and medical research and fostering collaboration for better health.
Mr Peter Wills AC
GREAT AUSTRALIAN PHILANTHROPY AWARD This award recognises personal philanthropy that is outstanding in its generosity, effectiveness, vision, high impact and transformative quality. The award encourages personal philanthropic donations over a period of time by an individual or family to Australian health and medical research.
GSK AWARD FOR RESEARCH EXCELLENCE The GSK Award for Research Excellence recognises outstanding achievements in medical research and facilitates career development with potential importance to human health and Australian research. This is one of the most prestigious awards available to the Australian medical research community. It has been awarded since 1980 to recognise outstanding achievements in medical research with potential importance to human health. This year’s award is accompanied by a grant of $80,000 to further the winner’s research.
The Winners
4
The winners of these three categories will be featured in the official Results brochure which will be provided after the Award announcements.
A science-led global healthcare company GSK is a science-led global healthcare company with a special purpose: to help people do more, feel better and live longer. In Australia, we offer a broad portfolio of innovative and established medicines, particularly in respiratory disease and HIV i. Our asthma medicines have been helping Australians breathe easier for over 50 years. Our vaccines have been at the heart of the Australian National Immunisation Program since it began, helping to protect Australians from serious diseases. Our trusted consumer brands like Panadol, Voltaren and Sensodyne have become household names.
Focused on innovation We invested over $7 billion in research and development globally in 2018, focusing on science related to the immune system, human genetics and advanced technologies. We also doubled the number of oncology projects in development through our own science, acquisitions and alliances. We work closely with leading local researchers and clinicians to ensure that Australian patients can access the latest global innovations, as they happen. We are committed to clinical data transparency and making our study results public, regardless of whether they reflect positively or negatively on our products. GSK is proud to support Australian research enabling further discoveries and better outcomes for patients through the GSK Award for Research Excellence now in its 39th year. Our HIV business is managed through ViiV Healthcare, a global specialist HIV company that GSK controls as majority owner, with Pfizer and Shionogi also as stakeholders.
i
@GSK_AU (GSK Australia)
au.gsk.com | gsk.com
GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY DISCOVERY AWARD FINALISTS
Dr Alexandra Bannach-Brown Alexandra is a postdoctoral research fellow with expertise and interests in evidence synthesis, open science and the automation of systematic reviews. Her research involves developing and implementing automation tools to reduce waste in healthcare and biomedical research and to improve research quality. Alexandra’s work focusses on automating systematic reviews and meta-analysis which are the highest level of evidence in evaluation in any topic or intervention. They are used regularly to evaluate healthcare interventions and outcomes. This research method collates all the available evidence about a healthcare topic to improve healthcare policy and clinical practice. It concentrates on testing and implementing novel automation techniques and software to aid the systematic review process to reduce the associated resources and financial costs. Nominated by Bond University
Dr Berhan Haile
This award recognises an early career researcher whose paper, patent or discovery has already demonstrated its importance or impact. Finalists are in alphabetical order. 6
Berhan is an Early Career Researcher working on development of simple diagnostic methods to improve access to laboratory services in resourcelimited settings. Berhan studied his BSc at Jimma University in medical laboratory technology and his second degree at Addis Ababa University in tropical and infectious diseases. In 2017, he received his PhD in public health from Monash University. Berhan’s areas of research interest include development, validation and implementation of simple and affordable diagnostic tests, and research towards elimination of infectious diseases. Dr Berhan Haile has developed a novel, equipment-free and filterpaper-based plasma separator device. Two clinical trial studies have shown it greatly improved the specificity of viral load testing from less than 50% from dry blood spots to 100%. This has significant implications for antiretroviral therapy program improvement and HIV patients’ outcomes in restless leg syndrome. With Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funding, Berhan is currently working on expanding the utility of this device for a number of other infectious diseases diagnostics. Nominated by the Burnet Institute
Translating research into better health outcomes
At Griffith University, our researchers are committed to developing healthy communities through exceptional health and medical research. We undertake research across the lifecycle to identify key factors that influence health. From this we develop and test strategies to improve health and wellbeing for individuals, families and communities. Four overarching programs—Disability and Rehabilitation, the Economic, Policy and Innovation Centre for Health Systems (EPIC Health Systems), Healthcare Practice and Survivorship, and Infectious Diseases and Immunology—encapsulate our research strengths and align with local and national health priorities.
Discover more: griffith.edu.au/menzies-institute
GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY DISCOVERY AWARD FINALISTS (cont.)
Dr Christine Keenan Christine is an NHMRC Early Career Fellow who works on epigenetic regulation of the immune system. She completed her PhD in Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of Melbourne in 2014. Christine’s research interest is developing new therapeutics for the treatment of respiratory disease. Christine is an emerging leader in the fields of epigenetic regulation and respiratory pharmacology. She is also passionate about training the next generation of Australian scientists, actively mentoring PhD students and teaching undergraduate biomedicine students. Dr Keenan’s discovery has the potential to revolutionise the treatment of asthma. She has discovered that a class of drugs currently in clinical trials for cancer can actually target and switch off the cells which cause asthmatic disease. These drugs could therefore be repurposed as a novel treatment of allergic asthma. Nominated by Walter & Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research
Dr Lucia Romani
Lucia is an epidemiologist and early career research fellow at the Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney. She is an internationally recognised leader in neglected tropical diseases research, with a focus on the epidemiology and control of scabies in the Pacific region. Among her highly impactful research outputs, Lucia conducted the world’s first national prevalence study for scabies in a population of over 10,000 people in Fiji, showing that one in five people and one in two children at any time are affected by the disease, representing some of the highest prevalence rates ever recorded. She also led the SHIFT trial, a comparative trial of mass drug administration (MDA) for scabies and produced the first definitive evidence that population scabies and associated impetigo prevalence can be reduced substantially through ivermectin MDA. The results of these studies and the high burden of scabies contributed to the World Health Organisation adding it to its list of neglected tropical disease in 2018. Lucia continues to work towards finding new strategies to optimise large-scale public health interventions for neglected tropical diseases. Nominated by UNSW Sydney 8
HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH AWARD FINALISTS
Professor Claire Jackson Professor Claire Jackson is a Professor in General Practice and Primary Care Research; and Director, Centre for Health System Reform and Integration, University of Queensland. Claire has been extensively involved in health services research and academic policy advice since the early 90s. She was CIA and Director of two $ 2.5 million Centres for Research Excellence in Primary Care Reform - one exploring new models of integrated care between hospital and community, the other investigating the impact of researcher and end-user ‘co-creation’ on clinical quality, patient experience, governance and models of care. Her description of the ‘beacon’ integrated care model was the basis for UQ’s successful $10 million Superclinic tender. She has been the national academic driver behind Australia’s Health Care Home initiative – a model of general practice innovation allocated $100 million by the COAG for pilot nationally in 2016. She has published and presented with international collaborators on the ‘co-creation’ methology for reserach implementation – bringing researchers, end-users and health stakeholders together to shape, evalue and translate health service interventions. Nominated by Griffith University
Professor Glenn Marshall AM FAHMS
This award is for an individual, team or organisation who has provided leadership and made an outstanding contribution to health services research; driven research that has led to a significant improvement in healthcare; and/or has championed the development of the health services research field. Finalists are in alphabetical order. 10
Professor Glenn Marshall AM FAHMS is a renowned clinician and researcher in the field of paediatric oncology. He’s a Paediatric Oncologist at Sydney Children’s Hospital (SCH) and Head of Translational Research and the Molecular Carcinogenesis Program at the Children’s Cancer Institute (CCI). As one of Australia’s leading clinicianscientists he was profiled in The Lancet highlighting his influential role in both discovery science and clinical translation of childhood cancer research. An integral aspect of Glenn’s research has been the pursuit of the fundamental mechanisms of oncogenesis and subsequent rapid clinical translation as diagnostics or therapeutics. He currently directs three Translational Research Networks for child cancer and chronic childhood illness, which have changed health systems, dramatically enhanced patient care, research infrastructure and opportunities for young scientists and clinicians. He’s mentored more than 50 Clinical Fellows, Research Students and Post-doctoral Scientists in the field of childhood cancer. He sees patients every day and continues to use their unsolved problems as the inspiration for his research. Nominated by UNSW Sydney
Professor Libby Roughead Professor Libby Roughead is a Senior Principal Research Fellow of the NHMRC and Director of the Quality Use of Medicines and Pharmacy Research Centre. Her research focuses on public policy concerning medicines, quality use of medicines, and medicine safety. Her research has made medication safety a priority issue for the country, informed the establishment of the post-market review program for medicines listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, assisted signal detection of adverse medicine events and provided international guidance on monitoring medicine use to support access to medicines. Her research developing patient and practitioner informed, data driven interventions to improve care has supported the sustained implementation of the Veterans’ MATES program. Collectively, doctors have received 1.5 million targeted messages for individual veterans, with supportive education provided to veterans and all pharmacies and aged care facilities in Australia. This has improved health outcomes; reducing hospitalisations and preventing premature death. Nominated by Health Services Research Australia & New Zealand
Professor Karin Thursky FAHMS Professor Karin Thursky is an infectious diseases physician and clinician-researcher who is nationally and internationally recognised as a leader and pioneer of antimicrobial stewardship. Karin is the deputy head of infectious diseases at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and amongst many other roles, the leader of the National Antimicrobial Prescribing Survey, which is the key contributor to Australia’s national antimicrobial use and resistance surveillance program. She has experience across a very wide range of areas, including adult and paediatric infectious diseases; clinical epidemiology; prevention and treatment of infections in the immunocompromised host; and antimicrobial stewardship in human and animal health. The clinical tools and health informatics programs she and her team have developed underpin much of the progress Australia has attained in this area.
The Health Services Research Award is proudly sponsored by the Victorian Government.
Nominated by the University of Melbourne 11
Dr Craig Dalton
Dr Sarah Best
ADVOCACY AWARD 2018
Matthew Grounds
2008 Prof Fiona Stanley AC 2007 Prof John Coghlan AO
2017 Sanfilippo Children’s Foundation
2006 Sir Gustav Nossal AC CBE
2016 Brenda King
2004 The Hon Peter Beattie AC
2015 Connie Johnson & Samuel Johnson OAM
2003 The Hon Bob Carr
2014 Karen Livingstone AM 2013 Mark Beretta 2012
lta Buttrose AO OBE
2011
Stephen Leeder AO
2010
Li Cunxin
2009 Prof Ian Hickie AM 2008 Dr James O Little AO 2007 Lisa Wilkinson AM 2006 Ricky Ponting AO 2005 Delta Goodrem 2004 Michael Milton OAM 2003 Sarah Murdoch
LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION AWARD 2014
Alastair Lucas AO
2013
Simon McKeon AO
2012
Will Delaat AM
2011
Prof Doug Hilton AO
2010
Mr John Funder AC
2009 Prof Joseph Sambrook
12
Laureate Prof Nicholas Talley AC (left) & Peter Wills AC
2005 The Hon John Brumby AO
DATA INNOVATION AWARD 2018
Dr Craig Dalton
2017
Prof Helmut Butzkueven
2016 Capital Markets CRC Health Market Quality Team
GREAT AUSTRALIAN PHILANTHROPY AWARD
2011 The Sylvia & Charles Viertel Foundation 2010
Greg Poche AO
2009 Clive Berghofer AM 2008 Judy & Jack Gibson 2007 Frank Lowy AC 2006 Carlo Salteri AO 2005 The Myer Family 2004 Lady Mary Fairfax AC OBE 2003 Dame Elisabeth Murdoch AC DBE
LEADERSHIP IN CORPORATE GIVING 2018
MACA Limited
2017
QBE Foundation
2016
Volvo Australia
2014
Bupa Health Foundation
2013
Rio Tinto
2012
Xstrata Coal
2016 McCusker Charitable Foundation
2011
David Jones
2015 Gandel Philanthropy, Mr John GandeI AC & Mrs Pauline Gandel
2008 Pfizer Australia
2018
The Bill & Iris Burges Trust
2017 Andrew Forrest AO and Nicola Forrest AO, The Minderoo Foundation
2009 Macquarie Group Foundation 2007 Wesfarmers
2014
Margarete & Len Ainsworth
2006 LJ Hooker
2014
Charles ”Chuck” Feeney
2005 Estee Lauder
2013
Susan Alberti AC
2004 Coco’s Fresh Food Market QLD
2012
Harold Mitchell AC
2003 Channel 7 Perth
Matthew Grounds
Prof Sue Kildea
PETER WILLS MEDAL
Andrew Forrest AO & Dr Nicola Forrest AO
2011
Dr Oliver Baumann
2013
2018 Laureate Prof Nicholas Talley AC
2010
Dr Mark Pearson
2012 Prof Hugh Taylor & Prof Phillip Sambrook
2017
Prof Kim Mulholland
2008 Dr Jeff Holst
2016
Prof lan Gust AO
2015
Prof Sharon Lewin
2014
Prof Alan Lopez AC
HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH AWARD
2013
Prof Paul Zimmet AO
2012
Sir Gustav Nossal AC CBE
2011
Prof John Shine
2009 Dr Sarah Whittle
2018
Prof Sue Kildea
Bill Ferris AC
2011 Laureate Prof Peter Doherty AC 2010
Prof Colin Binns
2009 Elaine Henry OAM 2008 Prof The Hon Barry Jones AO 2007 Ken Roberts
DISCOVERY AWARD
2017 Australian & New Zealand Hip Fracture Registry (AMZHFR) Prof Jacqui Close & Prof Ian Harris AM FAHMS 2016
Prof Michael Barton OAM
2004 Dr Susan Alberti AC
2018
Dr Sarah Best
2015
Prof Jeffrey Braithwaite FAHMS
2003 Mickie Hardie & Leila Schmidt
2017
Avnika Ruparelia
2016
Dr Rebecca Coll
2014 Prof Robert Sanson-Fisher AO FAHMS
2015
Dr Andrew Gardiner
2014
Dr Genevieve Healy
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
2013
Dr Franziska Bieri
2015
2012
Dr Motoiko Koyama
2014 Carol & Roy Langsford OAM
Prof Perry Bartlett
2006 The Hon Neville Wran AC 2005 Sir Bruce Watson AC
GSK RESEARCH EXCELLENCE AWARD 2018 Prof Georgina Long FAHMS & Prof Richard Scolyer FAHMS 2017
Prof Timothy Hughes
2016 Prof Patrick Sexton & Prof Arthur Christopoulos FAHMS
DATA INNOVATION AWARD FINALISTS
Associate Professor Adam Dunn Dr Adam Dunn is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Health Informatics, Australian Institute of Health Innovation at Macquarie University in Sydney; and is affiliated with the Computational Health Informatics Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. In clinical research informatics he develops machine learning methods to improve how drug safety evidence is synthesised from clinical trials. In public health informatics he applies machine learning and network science to large-scale data from social media to reach marginalised populations and improve health behaviours by promoting evidence and reducing the impact of misinformation. Adam’s research on vaccine misinformation is globally unique and involves the collection of TwitterTM data covering millions of tweets and billions of social connections. His team showed that estimating what people see on social media can be useful for predicting their opinions about vaccines. He then discovered that they could use social media data to show that population-level differences in information diet are closely associated with differences in vaccine coverage.
Nominate by Macquarie University
Professor John Lynch FAHMS
This award is presented to an individual or team that has developed the most innovative method of gathering, making available, processing or interpreting data in a way that advances health and medical research. Finalists are in alphabetical order. 14
John Lynch is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Adelaide. He spent 20 years working in North America and before returning to Australia in 2009 he held professorial positions at the University of Michigan and at McGill University. He is an internationally recognised scholar in epidemiology and public health with a focus on child health and development. Every year since 2014 he has received “Highly Cited Researcher” status that places him in the top 1% of scientists internationally in his field. Professor Lynch has developed the South Australian Early Childhood Data Project (SAECDP) which holds linked de-identified administrative data for over 500,000 children in SA born from 1991 onwards, their parents and carers. The data has many contributors and is the first research platform in Australia chosen by the Federal Dept. of Social Services to link Commonwealth Centrelink data with state data. Family files allow examination of intergenerational transmission from parent to children. This resource is now a world leading platform for transdisciplinary epidemiological investigation and quasiexperimental evaluation to better understand and intervene to improve child health and development. Nominated by the University of Adelaide
The Bupa Health Foundation is one of Australia’s leading corporate foundations dedicated to health. We partner with health and medical researchers to address the health needs of the Australian community and deliver on our purpose of helping people live longer, healthier, happier lives. Our approach to partnering is to invest in research that improves health through changes to policy, practice and behaviour; collaborate with researchers across the academic, industry and healthcare sectors; advocate for those who are improving health; and to develop capabilities of the health and medical research community. The Bupa Health Foundation was established in 2005 and has invested more than $32million to support over 130 projects.
Find out more at bupa.com.au/foundation
DATA INNOVATION AWARD FINALISTS (cont.)
LifeSpan data team (led by Matthew Phillips) The Black Dog Institute’s ‘LifeSpan’ data team, led by Matthew Philips, has developed a data platform and procedures to make suicide data accessible and understandable to those who have key roles in suicide prevention planning and service delivery. LifeSpan is using data analytics to improve surveillance and monitoring of suicides and suicide attempts. Identifying risk factors and evaluating interventions is at the forefront of reducing the suicide rate. With the ever-growing amount of data being collected, analytics is required to best understand trends and mitigating factors surrounding events. Together with the ANU and SAS, LifeSpan now has a greater capacity to identify areas of need. Mapping and spatial analysis are used to identify geographical variations in suicide risk, whether it’s for local, jurisdictional or national policy making, allowing targeted interventions in specific regions. The analytical software enables analysis of coronial findings and police and ambulance incident records to identify high suicide death and attempt rates to help decide where to focus efforts and choose appropriate strategies. For the first time disconnected data sets have been brought together for the purpose of saving lives through suicide prevention.
Nominated by Australian National University
Professor David Wilson
The Data Innovation Award is proudly sponsored by Bupa Health Foundation
David Wilson, PhD, is a Professor of Data, Analytics & Decision Sciences at the Burnet Institute and a Senior Program Officer and lead of Decision Sciences & Data Analytics at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He is at the international forefront of allocative efficiency in health to assist decision-makers, program managers, and funding partners achieve maximum impact with available funding pragmatically, in given political and health systems. David has innovatively used data to improve policy and programmatic decision making to better target public health responses and strengthen health systems. The impact of this body of work is demonstrably and directly linked to saving many lives from disease morbidity and mortality around the world. The ‘Optima’ suite of tools he created is now used in over 50 countries. Nominated by the Burnet Institute
16
UNSW SYDNEY
is a proud sponsor of the Research Australia Health and Medical Research Awards
From pioneering immunologists through to Australia’s largest integrated health science network, every member of the UNSW Sydney research community is committed to the pursuit of knowledge and the betterment of humanity. Our researchers have improved drinking water through innovative filtration technologies, helped the vision impaired by creating the world’s first hypoxiafree contact lens, and contributed to international breakthrough treatments for HIV. We are leaders in running clinical trials, including Australia’s first Molecular Screening and Trials study in rare cancers, and have played a key role in international best practice, shaping national and international guidelines developed by the World Health Organization.
CRICOS Provider Code 00098G
These are only a few of the thousands of achievements across fields such as medicine, law, physics, computing, engineering and the social sciences. When it comes to creating impact and unlocking the knowledge of tomorrow, UNSW is uniquely placed to support today’s biggest thinkers and face some of the world’s most difficult health challenges of our time.
ADVOCACY AWARD FINALISTS
Professor Gordon Lynch Professor Gordon Lynch is Director of the Centre for Muscle Research in the Department of Physiology at The University of Melbourne. His internationallyrenowned research program investigates muscle wasting disorders like muscular dystrophy, cancer and ageing and how muscles adapt to different challenges, including exercise and injury. Every week for the last 18 years, Gordon has promoted health and medical research to millions of Australians through his presentations on ABC Radio – broadcast nationwide, streamed online around the world, and podcasted on the ABC website. Through his health segment on the Overnights program, he has translated complex health discoveries into clear and understandable messages that can transform people’s health. For over nearly two decades he has showcased and championed outstanding research, highlighting the value of its investment to promote better health. Gordon is also a frequent health research commentator on social media, national newspapers, magazines and television. As a research leader and inspirational mentor, he is a role model for young researchers on the importance of media engagement and promoting research advocacy. Nominated by the University of Melbourne
Duncan McPherson OAM
This award recognises and congratulates exceptional contributions made by advocates who help raise community awareness and understanding about the importance of health and medical research. Finalists are in alphabetical order. 18
Duncan McPherson could never imagine becoming an advocate for ovarian cancer but on New Year’s Eve 2008, Duncan’s wife Lyn was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. After a short battle with advanced disease, Lyn McPherson passed away in 2010. Duncan is a father of three, Managing Director of a privately-owned construction company and also the Founder of Aldebaran Park, a Standardbred breeding and racing business. He Founded Team Teal in 2016 for Australia New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology Group (ANZGOG) to raise research funds and for gynaecological cancer trial nurses, recognising the important role nurses provide to a patient’s experience when undertaking a clinical trial. Lyn McPherson, herself a nurse, recognised the importance of women contributing to medical research. Nominated by Australia New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology Group
Annabelle Wilson Annabelle is a former radiotherapist and the Head of Advocacy at Cure Brain Cancer Foundation (CBCF). Her professional mission is to turn loss into positive change, and to inspire others to do the same. For the last four years Annabelle has worked tirelessly to help people impacted by brain cancer and get a fairer share of focus and funding for brain cancer research. Annabelle’s connection to the cause is deeply personal as her husband Josh was diagnosed with brain cancer at the age of 22 and passed away in 2017 after ten years of marriage. Annabelle led CBCF’s campaign to get the cancer drug Avastin listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) for brain cancer patients, a drug that could cost Australian patients over $20,000. Through her advocacy more than 1.5 million Australians and more than 210,000 people on social media were reached, resulting in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) receiving nearly a thousand submissions – an unheard of number for a rare cancer and rarely used treatment option. In June 2019, the PBAC announced that Avastin would be listed on the PBS for glioblastoma patients, citing the many moving and powerful submissions as the primary factor in its decision. She has personally raised more than $60,000 and spearheaded several major awareness campaigns. Nominated by Cure Brain Cancer Foundation
Public opinion polling for health and medical research The opinions of Australians continue to shape our strategies and priorities and assist us to ensure that a healthy population and healthy economy go hand in hand. To view the full report visit our website researchaustralia.org or for a copy please email admin@researchaustralia.org
FRONTIERS RESEARCH AWARD
A/Prof Jeremy Micah Crook and team A/Prof Jeremy Crook is Chief Investigator for the Synthetic Biosystems theme of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science; and Principal Fellow at the Universities of Wollongong (UOW) and Melbourne (UOM; Hon). Jeremy completed his PhD at UOM followed by a US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fogarty International Centre Fellowship. Jeremy was Program Manager in the stem cell biotech ESI and Group Leader in Singapore’s A*STAR Institute of Medical Biology (IMB). At UOW, Jeremy, his team and ACES Research Fellow Dr Eva Tomaskovic-Crook are making discoveries that are attracting worldwide attention through next generation tissue building for drug and disease modelling, and regenerative medicine. Their research integrates the front-line technologies of stem cells, innovative biomaterials, 3D bioprinting and bioelectronics, and is establishing Australia’s position as a global leader in innovative tissue engineering and electroceuticals for advanced research and medicine. Nominated by Monash University
Dr Lisa Gillinder Australia’s strong track record in health and medical research excellence positions it well to lead the world in health innovation. This award recognises the success of innovative health and medical research that extends existing knowledge, boundaries and/ or understandings within health and medical research. This category will recognise transformative research by an individual, team or corporate that will enable Australia’s health system to position itself as a global leader. Finalists are in alphabetical order. 20
Dr Gillinder has a joint clinical appointment as an Epileptologist at the Mater Advanced Epilepsy Unit, and Neurologist / Epileptologist at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. She is the first person to undertake a surgical epilepsy fellowship in Queensland and the first person to be trained in Stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) within Australia. Dr Gillinder specialises in epilepsy diagnosis using SEEG, in which electrodes are inserted into the brain to determine the source of epilepsy. This is a highly skilled approach using cutting edge technology to identify an abnormal brain region that is causing seizures, so it can be surgically removed. Dr Gillinder is also a pioneer in the field of autoimmune epilepsy which led to the discovery of an association between perisylvian epilepsy and the presence of neuronal autoantibodies. She was the first to report this finding, and it has changed the clinical approach to the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy. She also demonstrated improved seizure control with the use of immunotherapy. Nominated by Mater Medical Research Institute
Professor Sailesh Kumar Professor Sailesh Kuma is Professor of Obstetrcis & Gynaecology at the Mater Research Institute – University of Queensland. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists (UK) and Royal ANZ College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists and has a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford University. Worldwide, lack of oxygen is one of the leading causes of death and severe disability in newborn infants. Most cases occur without obvious risk factors, making identification of at-risk babies difficult. Prof Kumar was one of the first to identify circulatory changes that predispose a baby to compromise in labour. He leads internationally leading research for the prediction and prevention of this globally important health problem. His work is paradigm changing and he also mentors junior clinicians, researchers and medical students to reduce stillbirth. Nominated by Mater Medical Research Institute
Sophie Scott Sophie Scott is the national medical reporter for the ABC, in addition to being a prominent public speaker. Sophie has won numerous awards for excellence in medical and health journalism, including an Australian Museum Eureka award and multiple awards from various professional medical colleges. Sophie’s reports appear on ABC TV news, radio and online, as well as 7.30 and the ABC News Channel. She has a special interest in patient safety and ground breaking medical research which improves the lives of Australians. Her popular blog on living an authentic life features on ABC Health and Wellbeing online. She is an ambassador for Bowel Cancer Australia, to raise awareness of cancer screening and is the author of two books, Live a Longer Life, and Roadtesting Happiness. Follow her on
" @sophiescott2 È scott.sophie@abc.net.au
INSPIRE is Research Australia’s online publication showcasing its members’ research, innovation and leadership. To view visit researchaustralia.org 2017 | 005
INSPIRE
2018 | 010
R E S E A R C H AU S T R A L I A S H O W C A S E S H E A LT H & M E D I C A L R E S E A R C H
KNOCKOUT
A one-two punch against pancreatic cancer SHEDDING LIGHT: Genome Sequencing & Mitochondrial Disease
3D BIOPRINTING TECHNOLOGIES:
Unlocking new treatments for typeone diabetics
Fro n ti ers ed it io n
PLUS: Avatar transforms dementia care training Researchers and the Health Data Maze
UNLOCKING 2018 | 008
Australia's potential with Frontiers research
2018 | 009
Foreword by the Minister for Health RESEARCH AUSTRALIA
PUTS DATA FRONT AND CENTRE IN NSW PARLIAMENT HOUSE
EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE PROVIDING NEW HOPE FOR ADVANCED PROSTATE CANCER PATIENTS
brainpark TM BUILDING BETTER BRAIN HEALTH FOR AUSTRALIANS
A NEW CHAPTER IN DISEASE DETECTION
END-USERS DRIVING MEDTECH INNOVATION GENETIC MARKERS FOR BREAST CANCER
RA0012_INSPIRE_Sept18_D5.indd 1
2019 | 011
AUSTRALIAN GEOSPATIAL HEALTH LAB – MAPPING THE WAY TO IMPROVED WELLBEING
WORLD-FIRST RESEARCH IN IDENTIFYING HEART ATTACK RISK NEXT GENERATION MEDICAL DEVICES TO ELIMINATE BLOOD TRAUMA A BREAKTHROUGH IN HOW RESEARCHERS DISCOVER THE CAUSES OF GENETIC HEART DISEASE
17/10/18 9:50 pm
2019 | 012
Cracking news from the Westmead Institute for Medical Research QIMR Berghofer, a step closer to safe bone marrow transplants Monash University painting a picture of health with algorithms
RA0004_INSPIRE_Jun18_D5.indd 1
11/6/18 9:00 pm
2019 | 013
A CLINICAL TRIALS FOCUSED ISSUE Clinikids – a marriage of research and practice Consumers leading the way in clinical trials Women boosting women in STEM on Wikipedia
Chris Chapman Chair, Research Australia President, International Institute of Communications. Chairman, Nihilent Australia
Peter Wills AC Deputy Chair, Research Australia Chairman, Biomedical Translation Fund Committee
Associate Professor Annette Schmiede Executive Leader, Bupa Health Foundation
Professor Nicholas Fisk FAHMS Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), UNSW Sydney
Professor Melissa Little FAHMS Theme Director of Cell Biology Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Professor Alexandra McManus Consultant, Health & Medical Research
Associate Professor Greg Kaplan Chief Operating Officer Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research
Professor Dawn Freshwater FRCN Vice-Chancellor of The University of Western Australia
Professor Ian Jacobs FAHMS President and Vice-Chancellor, UNSW Sydney
Jenny Morawska Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, The Morawska Group
Dr Andrew Nash Senior Vice President Research, CSL Limited
Professor Mary Foley AM Managing Director, Telstra Health
24
Nadia Levin Managing Director and CEO, Research Australia
Research Australia is honoured to have internationally renowned scientist, Sir Gustav Nossal as its Patron. He has been a longstanding, significant figure in Australia’s medical and scientific community. He was Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (1965-1996), and is currently Professor Emeritus of Medical Biology at the University of Melbourne and President of the Australian Academy of Science, a consultant for the World Health Organisation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; and a Principal of Foursight Associates Pty Ltd. Gustav Nossal was born in Bad Ischl, in Austria and his family left their hometown of Vienna for Australia when he was eight years old. When he attended his first Australian school, Nossal spoke no English but graduated from St Aloysius’ College in 1947 as the dux of the College. In 1948, he entered Sydney University’s Medical School, graduating later with first class honours. At the age of 26, he left his job in Sydney and moved to Melbourne to work with Macfarlane Burnet in Medical Science. Nossal gained his PhD degree in 1960 at the age of 29. Gustav Nossal has received numerous awards and recognition throughout his career. He was knighted in 1977 for his ground-breaking work in immunology and made a companion of the Order of Australia in 1989. He was awarded the Albert Einstein World Award of Science in 1990 and in 1996 he won the highly prized Koch Gold Medal for major advances in biomedical science. He has been identified as one of Australia’s national living treasures. Sir Gustav Nossal is involved in a number of other organisations that allow him to reach people in many areas of the community, including the Centenary of Federation Victoria Committee, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and The Global Foundation. He has been listed in annual Australia Day Honours four times, including as Companion of the Order of Australia in 1989 “For services to medicine, to science and to the community” and a Centenary Medal Winner “For distinguished service to the study of antibody formation and immunological tolerance” in 2000, when he was also named Australian of the Year.
25
Research Australia extends its gratitude and appreciation to all the Award Sponsors and Partners of this year’s Health and Medical Research Awards.
Thank you!
26
Research Australia is the national alliance representing the entire health and medical research pipeline from the laboratory through to the patient and the marketplace. As a member, you add your voice and perspective to the large-scale advocacy needed in our complex policy and political environment. Our strength lies in our broad representation across the sector. We’ve been providing credible policy advice to governments for over 18 years, enabling policy makers and funders alike to access our membership for insight and input into decision making. We invite you to partner with us to assist in driving and shaping the health needs of the nation. For membership enquiries please contact Sally Shepherd P 02 9295 8545 E sally.shepherd@researchaustralia.org 27
Research Australia Sydney 384 Victoria Street Darlinghurst NSW 2010 Ph: (02) 9295 8546 Research Australia Melbourne Level 5, 215 Spring Street Melbourne VIC 3000 Ph: (03) 9662 9420 E admin@researchaustralia.org W researchaustralia.org
MNS @ResAustralia #resausawards